How One Big Gamble Changed Everything - Tomas Martinez of TM3 Impact

In this powerhouse episode of Key Factors Podcast – Real Estate AF, host Mark Jones sits down with Tomas Martinez, founder of TM3 Impact and Luxury Home Magazine (San Antonio & Austin). Tomas shares his incredible story—from being cut from the C team in middle school basketball to building one of the most successful luxury real estate publications in Texas.

They unpack:

- How he and his wife bootstrapped a franchise with car loans
- Why paper is still powerful in a digital world
- How to break into luxury real estate (even if you have no experience)
- Why branding beats marketing, and the power of relentless consistency
- His evolution into coaching, training, and the Distinctive Agent Lab
- How faith, marriage, and mindset shaped his journey

Luxury Magazine San Antonio - https://www.luxuryhomemagazine.com/sanantonio/
Get in Touch with Tomas - https://www.tm3impact.com/

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#KeyFactorsPodcast #RealEstateAF #TM3Impact #LuxuryHomeMagazine #TomasMartinez #BrandingMatters #FaithDriven #EntrepreneurJourney #LoanBot

Chapters

• 0:00 Welcome And Guest Intro
• 2:05 Growing Up, Grit, And The Net Story
• 9:45 College Detour And Faith Turning Point
• 16:40 From Teaching To Real Estate Exposure
• 22:10 The Magazine Idea Is Born
• 28:20 Betting It All And First Issue Hurdles
• 36:20 Breaking Even, Events, And Long-Term Deals
• 41:55 Expanding To Austin And Market Contrast
• 47:45 Why Luxury Sales Are Climbing In San Antonio
• 54:30 Print, Mail, And The Power Of Aspirational Media
• 1:01:20 Training Agents: The Distinctive Agent Lab

Transcript

SPEAKER_03: 0:34

And welcome back to another episode of Key Factors Podcast Real Estate AF, where the AF stands for and finance. And I'm your host, Mark Jones, and we are powered by Lonebot, the Smarter Mortgage Magging app, now available on the App Store and Google Play. And the past couple of discussions, um, we kicked around the idea of hard money, we talked about builders, we talked about builder incentives, we spoke with some brokers to get their opinion on that concept. Um, and now I want to kind of slow it down a little bit and bring in a guest that I think you guys should hear his story. Um, I definitely want to learn more from him. Um, you may know him from the uh correct me, it is it is T3. No, TM3 mailed it. Okay. Yep, TM3 Impact. TM3 Impact. Um, so without further ado, Tomas.

SPEAKER_04: 1:28

Yes, how you doing? Man, blessed. Yes, blessed and highly favored. I'm excited. This studio is legit. You guys did a great job.

SPEAKER_03: 1:35

Thank you.

SPEAKER_04: 1:35

Thank you for inviting me to be on a podcast.

SPEAKER_03: 1:37

Absolutely, man. Uh, I saw your episode uh recently last week um with the Garcias. Yes, fantastic discussion. Yes, I loved hearing more about them. Um, my brother went to school with them, so I get to hear a little bits and pieces here and there, but that was a good conversation.

SPEAKER_04: 1:54

It was.

SPEAKER_03: 1:54

It was um and like I like to start every episode similar to the way you do, yeah. Tell me a bit about yourself. But instead of cliff notes, I want to know the whole thing.

SPEAKER_04: 2:05

The whole thing. Okay, yeah. Um, so Tomas Martinez, born in um Georgia, okay, in Fort Benning, Georgia. My my parents were military. They met in Fort Benning, Georgia. Okay, and um, they met there, and uh it's awesome. The next thing you know, we are on our way to Hawaii, where my sister was born. Wow. So moved to Hawaii again. Parents uh both in the military, and then from Hawaii, my sister's born. We go to San Antonio, Texas, which is why most people end up here. It's because of the military.

SPEAKER_03: 2:40

It wasn't for the weather.

SPEAKER_04: 2:41

Yeah, it wasn't for the weather. No, no, no. It was for the military. And uh, you know, we end up in San Antonio, and I loved it. I I remember as a as a young kid growing up, I grew up over um in the glen. I don't know if you're familiar with the glen.

SPEAKER_03: 2:56

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 2:56

So right there by uh Roosevelt High School, Montgomery Elementary is where I went to elementary school.

SPEAKER_03: 3:02

Aka the hood.

SPEAKER_04: 3:03

Yes. This was this was, you know, this was definitely the hood. This was definitely an interesting, you know, uh time frame. But I'm gonna tell you, it was one of the most fun time frames to grow up there because we were outside every stinking day. Yeah. We were playing football, we were playing back. We played basketball on a milk crate.

SPEAKER_03: 3:21

Dude, that's that's on a milk crate. That's that's the real deal, right there. It was a real deal.

SPEAKER_04: 3:27

And I remember David Brown, shout out to David Brown and his family. I remember the day that his dad bought a basketball gold. An actual hoop. An actual hoop. Y'all didn't know what's the one. And he welded it to the top of the, because they had driveways. Sure. He welded it to the top of the, you know, this deal. And we were actually shooting hoops in that thing, and it was like the coolest thing ever. I was young, so I wasn't, you know, in that good, and I didn't know what was going on, but all my buddies there. So grew up there, and then um parents uh separate, and then I moved to Austin. Okay. And I moved went to Butah, Texas.

SPEAKER_05: 4:01

Okay.

SPEAKER_04: 4:02

And uh lived there, went to went to elementary, went to middle school there. And that's when the dream of my real dream, which was uh NBA basketball player. That's where it began.

SPEAKER_05: 4:12

Okay.

SPEAKER_04: 4:12

Yeah. I was like sixth grade. I told my sixth grade teacher, I'm gonna be in the NBA. And my teacher, you know what she told me? She she she laughed at me because I was short. I don't, I didn't break a 100 pounds until my sophomore year in high school. Oh, wow. Okay, okay, like I was little, like five, three, five, four. But I mean, you talk about the heart of just an absolute crazy person. Yeah, yeah. Crazy, tenacious, um, wild. Anyways, so she looked at me and she says have you not seen there was a magazine cover that said more people get struck by lightning than go to the NBA. Ooh. And I saw that in the sixth grade.

SPEAKER_03: 4:52

Wow.

SPEAKER_04: 4:52

And I'm thinking, hey, you can't take my dream away from me.

SPEAKER_03: 4:56

How much time do you spend outside after that? Like, come on, come on.

SPEAKER_04: 4:59

I was just, man, I was like, listen, man, I I'm this dream is gonna keep going. I'm not worried about my my you know, bad English teacher in sixth grade. So then what ends up happening is sixth grade tryouts happen. Okay, and I've and I've shared the story, but the base the gist of the story is I I call it the net story, is is you know, I practice all summer. And I mean I practice, I did layups, I'm doing jump shots, I'm doing everything. Michael Jordan style. All yes, posters, you know it. I had the I had all the posters. So get to the tryout. I can't wait. I'm in line, and and they had us all lined up at the free throw line. And I'm thinking, if it's layups, this is a I mean, I'm gonna I'm gonna get picked. If it's free throws, I'm definitely gonna get picked because I can shoot free throws. If they if whatever they're doing, I but I don't hear any basketballs bouncing. I don't, I don't know what's going on, and it's a long line of kids. So I finally get there, and and our you gotta understand our gym had a carpet. Okay. With carpet floors.

SPEAKER_03: 5:53

Wow.

SPEAKER_04: 5:54

Okay, that's how old I am. Yeah, carpet floors. Okay, okay. You've never played on carpet, Mark. I can tell by your reaction. You've you played on carpet. You know, you know. See, JC, yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_03: 6:04

Hey Siri, is what they're talking about actually real?

SPEAKER_04: 6:07

It's real, bro. It's real. Carpet, carpet floors. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 6:12

Wow.

SPEAKER_04: 6:12

And that was like during that time, your your mic is live.

SPEAKER_03: 6:15

You know, all you gotta do is pull the trigger.

SPEAKER_04: 6:17

Yeah, during that time, it was it was that was a thing. Carpet floors, it was a thing. So I'm standing at the I get to the free throw line, and the coach looks at me and he goes, touch the net. And I'm like, okay, I'll touch the net. I run and jump. Don't even I didn't even get close, Mark. I didn't even close. So I didn't get put with A team. I didn't get put with B team. I got put on Go team. Really? Otherwise known as C team. Yeah. Otherwise known as Water Boy. You're not playing. Yeah. You're not gonna play, right? And so basically, C team was a team where you got pennies, you got a penny, and you played each other.

SPEAKER_03: 6:56

Oh, really?

SPEAKER_04: 6:57

Yeah, that was C team. Okay. We we didn't there wasn't even another team. There wasn't even another team to play. So I'm on C Team, and I remember, I I just remember going, I I I went home, I was completely dejected. Told told my mom, I was like, you know, my coach, and he basically told me, he said, Yeah, you're just too short. I just wouldn't even play basketball. Go go do track or something or whatever. I go home and tell my mom, I'm quitting. I'm like, I'm not gonna play basketball. She's like, You you you're not gonna quit. You need to go tell your coach you're gonna prove him wrong. Like just straight up, just go tell your coach you can prove him. So I stand there, just you know, and I say, Hey, my mom told you I gotta prove you wrong. That's right. That's what my mom said. So I played on C team. Um, after the first couple of games, they realized that I can't be on C team because I I was just dribbling up and down and scoring all the points. So they moved me to B and then from B to A. And then that kind of like was like that moment, that shift where in my mind it was like, okay, if if if you put in the work and you just and you don't quit, stay consistent, there's gonna be opportunities that come up. That was kind of that building block. Wow. And so that led to playing basketball in high school, going to college and playing basketball, played uh at Wayland Baptist in Plainview, Texas. Yeah, little bitty. And little bitty town, right outside of way outside, well, way outside of Lubbock, but north of Lubbock. And so went there to play basketball. And all of that was based on that one moment of my mom saying, You're gonna go tell him you're gonna prove your coach wrong. So after a year there, I got in a really bad car accident and moved back to San Antonio. Okay. My dad said, Hey, come back, I'll pay for your school. So I go to UTSA. And that's when, you know, my life started really kind of shaping. I met this amazing guy named Rafael Linares. Okay, uh fellow Boricwa. You know, my father's from Puerto Rico. You need to know my father's from Puerto Rico. My mom is from Virginia, okay? So, like the perfect match, right? Uh, perfect yin and yang. My dad came, just to give brief history with my grandma. They came to from Puerto Rico to New York, three brothers, all three of them. They all came single mom, moved to New York in the middle of winter with no jackets and three-piece suits, and started their life in New York. Wow. And then that be, you know, that kind of started their life. That doesn't happen. I don't, you know, my dad doesn't meet my mom and I'm not here, right? So all of that. So then, so I get to uh UTSA, I meet this guy, Rafael Linadas, and he starts talking about the Bible. He starts talking about church. And I just was like, I kind of gone to church when I was younger, in middle school and high school, but never when I was younger. My parents didn't go. But I went when I was in high school and I knew that I needed that in my life. I knew that I needed that structure and everything. And so I was like, yeah, Rafa, you know, that's that that that sounds cool. Okay, great, whatever. I was like, but you know, I don't know. Call me. So he kept calling. Next thing I know, I meet him at the campus. I start studying the Bible, and my life changes. Isn't it amazing? And and get baptized in my whole world view, everything starts to change. And it was it was amazing. I'm part of this amazing campus ministry at the time. Um, and during that time, I I actually had right before that had met Christina, my wife. Okay. So her and I met at a King Centetta. That's a whole other story.

SPEAKER_03: 10:02

Totally separate from being at UT.

SPEAKER_04: 10:03

Yeah. Well, it it was it was actually uh two weeks before I started college at UTSA, my second year, I met her at a Kingston Yeta. Okay. Yeah. And so we had kind of started meeting, and then I started going to church. And then so we be, we were friends and we were talking. Um, and then you fast forward, I I get my degree of I'll I'll kind of through the fast-forward here. I get my degree in teaching, decide I want to be a teacher, and uh start teaching. And and and in the meantime, my wife at Christina at the at the time, we met prior and then we started meeting again. We meet back at church again, we get married. Uh, that was, let's see, that would have been 99. So I'll be married 26 years in December. Congratulations. Yeah, it was a big deal. That's a big mettle that I love.

SPEAKER_03: 10:47

It really is.

SPEAKER_04: 10:48

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 10:48

Um at 14, so I I know what you're saying.

SPEAKER_04: 10:51

You know, yeah, you know. And it and getting past that 10 and getting it's just, you know, it's you don't see it as often.

SPEAKER_03: 10:56

You look back and you go, we've gone too far. Let's just keep going.

SPEAKER_04: 10:59

Yeah. Well, my wife says her, her, her, her thing is we renegotiate every year. She we got to renegotiate. We got to, what are our terms? Yeah. So yeah. So anyway, so we get married, I start my teaching career, and then we're kind of off to the races building our you know, careers. And there was a moment in time where my wife gets into new home sales, and that's where this whole where you know, me become luxury home magazine, all of this. It started with her getting involved with uh of the the the building world. Okay. And she got hired at Toll Brothers, and then she started working with McNair. Okay. So she knew this world.

SPEAKER_03: 11:32

She was really in the custom world.

SPEAKER_04: 11:35

She was in that not in the very beginning, but she kind of went to there. She went to that direction and got involved with McNair, worked for McNair for a long time. And then that's when we started to see, because I was still in teaching full time, you know, that's when we started to see, like, well, maybe there's something that we could, there's a combining of what I do, what I've done. Because while I was a teacher, I started speaking. Okay. I became a speaker and and traveled the state of Texas with 40 Farrier, where I was teaching teachers how to really do better in their classes, in the tax test, motivation, you know, motivating their kids. So I did that for a long time. I I tell I actually talk about that in my last podcast, um, which was really cool. Then, so at one point, my wife says, I think I need a magazine. I need to create a magazine. And I'm like, Well, for what? And she's like, Well, if I create a magazine, I could advertise my listings and some of the listings that we have, and then we can mail it to people. And I thought, that sounds really expensive and dumb. Um, but you know, okay, tell me more. And then at that time, there was no Zillow. No, there was Zillow. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, this would have been uh 2010. Okay. So there was Zillow at that time. This would have been 2009, 2010. So Zillow was around. Um, but in terms of like getting inside of a house, yeah, mailed, you had flyers, but there was no magazine. There was nothing like that that somebody could flip through. Um, and so we were like, yeah, you know, that sounds interesting. So we went on a cruise with our son. Enzo was about 18 months at the time. Okay. And during that time, you nap. You remember when you napped your kids, how beautiful that was? Yeah. And you would nap with them.

SPEAKER_03: 13:13

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04: 13:14

Oh, if we could go back to the days of napping. Ah, that's right. So awesome. But we were in the room and we were, we were kind of napping with Enzo. But at one point, Christina, while he was had fallen asleep, she's like, I really think we need to figure this magazine thing out because it would really help me sell more houses. And I said, Okay, well, let's let's figure it out. So we get back home, go to local coffee, and we were just like, What are we gonna call it? And we typed in Luxury Home magazine. And lo and behold, it's a franchise. Oh, right, it's already there, it was already out in existence. How cool. Okay, nationally. So a lot of people don't know that about the publication. Luxury magazine is all over the country. And so at that time, we're we're of course both of us are like, it's already in, somebody already has it, you know, because any franchise you look at, someone owns. Yep. I remember the first time I ate at a corner bakery. Okay, and I was like, we gotta bring it to San Antonio. They had already purchased it.

SPEAKER_03: 14:02

Already done.

SPEAKER_04: 14:03

And it and it didn't show up for like another four years. Oh, yeah. That's how those work. Anyway, so she um my my my wife, we we type it in luxury home magazine, and there it is, luxury home magazine, and it doesn't exist in San Antonio. Okay, we were like, yes. So we started doing all the research. We call the guy, get him on the phone, and then it became like this, you know, this conversation. Let's talk about it. Does San Does San Antonio does it even support a luxury home? Now, when I first started talking to agents, a lot of agents said no, it doesn't in the very beginning. Really? They're like, this is not a luxury home.

SPEAKER_03: 14:39

Well, and at that time, you had probably a handful of agents that were selling that line of product.

SPEAKER_04: 14:45

Yeah, there's about 40. Yeah, about 40.

SPEAKER_03: 14:48

Well, two handfuls.

SPEAKER_04: 14:49

Yeah, two handfuls. Yeah, it was about 40 agents. Now, in this, and this is the crazy part. Uh, in 2011, when we launched the magazine, there were only 77 million dollar homes that sold. Wow. In the whole year.

SPEAKER_03: 15:01

That's it. That's it. The whole year. Wow. And it's just funny to hear which proves their point.

SPEAKER_04: 15:07

It wasn't really a luxury market, right? It wasn't really wasn't in the beginning. Wow. Yeah. Yeah. So I was right at the cusp of launching that when we only had 77 houses sell for a million dollars. Holy cow.

SPEAKER_03: 15:18

Yeah. And and most realtors that I hear, and I used to do uh classes at Sabor and classes at Champions. And uh one of the first things that they want to aspire to do is become a million-dollar listing agent. Oh, yeah. You know, and it's like, guys, there's not enough yet to compete with what you have out there that are already doing it pretty well.

SPEAKER_04: 15:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 15:40

To be honest.

SPEAKER_04: 15:40

Yeah. Yeah. So I think, you know, the TV uh definitely played in that, the reality shows, you know, the million-dollar listing. For sure. Which, you know, I I I've met Josh. Josh has come here. He spoke at my real estate summit um back in 14. And I think that kind of plays into that, right? That idea. But what we what we found is that there was an opportunity to really market luxury listings, even though a lot of them weren't selling. We had them. We had about 150 to 200 on the market, but they weren't selling. It was taking, you know, two years. I think the average days of market in 2011, you're looking at, you know, anywhere from 340 to, you know, then I think one year was 600. You know, you I mean, it was taking a long time for those to sell. Right.

SPEAKER_03: 16:24

But that was the norm. That was a norm. That was the norm in that instance or that time frame in in our industry.

SPEAKER_04: 16:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 16:32

And I think it's pretty cool, especially having had a home, purchased a home that's been in that magazine over and over, etc. It's cool for someone that is selling their home to be able to go somewhere. They see your magazine, they pop it open, and sure enough, there's their home that they're trying to sell. And I don't know if they get upset because it's still not sold, but they definitely get that feeling of uh ownership and you know what I mean, appreciation for what they've done, what they've built, what they've paid for thus far. Right.

SPEAKER_04: 17:07

Yeah, and and and so what we what we noticed right away is that agents needed a they needed a tool that could get in the household so that they could get those listing at bats. Sure. So that they could get those opportunities to get more luxury listings. Right. And so we st we I I remember we kicked it off. I met with, I mean, you got to remember, I was a I went from teaching and and and and speaking, right, you know, to now I'm gonna sell to the top agents in San Antonio. With zero real estate experience. I had no experience in real estate. I had my license. Now in 2009, I got my license with my wife because basically she became an individual agent at a point. And so we both got our license together, right? Okay. So so I I had a license, but I wasn't, I wasn't like really practicing real estate. I was a teacher and then I was my wife's buyer's agent. Okay. So she would send me here you go. Here, he's a buyer. Go take him, drive him all around the city. And I'm at I'm at SeaWorld, you know, showing houses on 151, you know. Um, and uh I I I re-realized, you know, during that time that that that this was probably not gonna be our long term, but but something was gonna come out of it. And that's when the idea of the magazine came out of that is that we need a tool to sell. My wife got a really, really nice listing, and we put it on the cover of Homes and Land. Oh, very cool. And we were, I can't tell you how pumped we were to get that. It was a$900,000 listing, got it on the cover, paid. I mean we paid this really fancy photographer. I want to think we paid it like$600 to get one photo of the front of this house because it was a very unique house. We got it, got this cover, and I think my wife has it somewhere. We uh we gotta pull that out. Damn it. But we had that cover, and like we were, we, we thought. We're the bee's knees. We are gonna get so many phone calls. We're gonna have the phone ring off the hook. That's awesome. Everyone's gonna know who we are. This is gonna be the greatest thing ever. We ended up getting like three calls. We got three calls. It was good. We got another opportunity which for a listing, which is what you want. But the reality was it wasn't that wasn't necessarily what sold the house, but it was what put it in front of people that this house is available. Most definitely, right? And so, and that was homes and land that didn't even get direct mailed.

SPEAKER_01: 19:16

No, I was the first sales rep for homes and land. Were you when they came uh came to the market in 2002? Out my friend bought the franchise here with comedy. Really? And he sold it to someone. Wow, that's so cool. I thought I I was the first rep that oh the distribution to get them at H E B's and that's JC on the mic.

SPEAKER_03: 19:38

JC. I forgive me, I did not put his camera on. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_01: 19:42

How do I gotten a taste in real estate?

SPEAKER_04: 19:44

I love it. It's a great, it's a great way to learn the system, it's a great way to learn the business. You know, definitely. And so, so you know, unfortunately, homes and land went out of business. It it it I think it closed like five or six years ago, uh, the one here in San Antonio, uh, which I I was I was bummed because there's there's now a gapping hole missing for stuff below a million. Sure. You know, things in that that that lower than a million, because typically everything in my magazine is a million and up. Correct. Um, but anyway, so it's a national publication. I start, we, we, we bring it to San Antonio. And in the beginning, agents were just like, I don't know how this is gonna work, but we got the first one going, and then from there, it just took off. Wow, it really now it it it was a lot of hard work. Oh, I'm sure. I'm sure there's yeah, a reinvesting of your money, like constantly throwing parties. Big risk, big risk, absolutely. Every issue, we had a cover party. Wow, and those cover parties were like everybody wanted to be able to do it.

SPEAKER_03: 20:36

So you were just pouring into the business, everything was pouring back into the business. Everyone, yeah. Um, did you have investors at the time, or were you investing your own funds and taking that risk and going, okay, I hope this pans out, or I'm dunzo? And and I speak from experience. I've I've been CEO of two separate tech companies that one all my money, the next, half my money. And then it was like, okay, mama said you need to find some investors. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 21:05

Well, this is this is an interesting is this was an interesting story. My dad, he he's gonna hear this podcast, and and again, I'm I'm I'm I'm excited to share this from two aspects of it. Number one, I went to my dad in the very beginning because I was really I was scared. I gotta be honest. I was scared out of my mind. I'm a here I am a teacher, and I'm gonna go start a luxury real estate publication. Right. And I'm not I'm a realtor, but I don't I don't really know the real estate world like these agents do, right? I understand marketing, I understand it to a degree at that point, but I'm like, I don't, I said, I'm um, and I so I went, I remember sitting down with my dad. I go, Dad, do you want to invest in this? Like, I need some money. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And uh, and we had talked to other people about it, and and everybody was like, they were kind of hesitant. And I remember my dad going, you know what? He goes, the best thing that you're gonna do is he goes, you need to go do it on your own. And I was like, and I just I remember, I remember this feeling of like brother, I I'm right there with you.

SPEAKER_03: 22:05

You know that feeling. Well, same same situation. Yeah, you need to do it on your own. My dad, yeah, he's like, You need to do it on your own. Yeah, and that turned into what we are and where we are today. So damn it, dad, but at the same time, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_04: 22:19

Yeah, you know, well, and and and part of that is the part about it is interesting, is that he he I was a Dave Ramsey guy. Okay, okay, like hardcore. Okay, all right, like I'm I'm talking like no credit cards. I didn't have any credit cards. Wow, I had no debt other than my mortgage. I had all my cars were paid. We we were like, like, I mean, we we had even did uh did the the envelopes at one point, like the cash and envelopes. Like that's how hardcore we were. Wow. Okay.

SPEAKER_03: 22:47

So at that point, you had not really felt the idea of leverage to gain.

SPEAKER_04: 22:54

No.

SPEAKER_03: 22:54

Wow, okay.

SPEAKER_04: 22:55

No, like and and and and even to a point after starting the magazine, I had, I had, I had some really dear friends, Brad, who was who who sold me my franchise here, um, who was the owner of all of them. Okay. I mean, even to the point where he would just, he would, he'd like, he'd make fun of me. He's like, no, did Dave Ramsey tell you to do that? Like, it was it was a thing, all right? So here I'm a Dave Ramsey guy, and and I remember, I remember this distinctly. My dad's like, he goes, just take a loan out on your cars. Both my cars were paid. And I remember like that, that, that feeling of like, I'm gonna have to not only leverage everything that I have in my bank, which give it all that up, now I'm gonna leverage my cars. That's right. And take the money out and put notes on my cars. And I went home and I told my, I remember telling my wife, I was like, okay, we're I think we're gonna have to take notes out on our cars. And um, yeah, the Dave Ramsey thing, we're probably just gonna have to like put that under the table. We're just gonna have to like just pause that for a second, you know? Um, and and we did it. I called USAA. I I I couldn't believe they gave me, I had a Toyota Highlander. They gave me like$15,000 for my Toyota Highlander, which was paid off at the time, and it was huge and it had$160,000 miles. And I'm taking a$15,000 loan on this car. And then I had a BM, my wife had a BMW X5, and we took out a loan on that car. Um, and I just remember sitting there going, okay, here we go. I got there's$25,000 more plus what we're putting, and now we're roll, we're all in. I pushed all the chips in. That's right. And it was a moment of just like sheer of like, I don't, I like this is this is wild. And we're going in debt to start this business. That's right. And so then fast forward, I remember there was a there was a moment of like, um, I'm calling these agents and I'm literally banging the phones, calling, because we're trying to launch it. Absolutely. I'm getting meetings, I'm a startup, you know. I'm meeting with all the top agents, I'm getting getting in the door with them, I'm sitting down with them, and I'm, I mean, no became my vitamins. Wow. Like, no was like a vitamin tip. That's right. I just need you to tell me no, so I'll stop bugging you. Just tell me no, you know? And so, and I'm banging the phones, calling, I'm calling, I'm calling. And there came a point where, you know, we get that first magazine printed and and we get it. It's 32 pages. Okay. Okay. And and and and we just we're like, we just we got it to the finish line. I remember it took forever to get it. We get I were they delivered it to my house in an 18 wheeler.

SPEAKER_02: 25:30

Wow.

SPEAKER_04: 25:31

Okay. Wow. Imagine that. An 18 wheeler pulls up, it's pulling down the pallets. I have four pallets of magazines in my garage now. Holy shit. Now the mail went to the mailing and that was separate. And but I had these pallets of all the boxes of all my magazines, and I remember opening up the first magazine, and I just cried. It was the most emotional, surreal feeling ever, you know? And I'm looking through each one and I'm like, well, now I gotta deliver them. Now I got to get these out. And and and so get them all out, and then I gotta sell the next issue. That's right. Right? But right as I was about to sell the next issue, I remember there was a there's that moment in time where I'm going, like, because you don't make any money. The first magazine doesn't make any money.

SPEAKER_03: 26:15

The moment is, am I in over my head? Yeah, am I uh my skis out front of me? Are they back there? I mean, there I know that feeling. And you mentioned that the idea of having that fear. Oh, yeah. In my opinion, being a business owner, doing running some startup companies, um, if you don't have that fear, it's probably not worth doing, in my opinion. Yeah, you know, it's not big enough. Maybe you didn't reach far enough, risk more. Yeah, um, maybe your message, whatever it is that you're trying to get across that to sell, yeah, maybe it's not big enough. Yeah, you know, yeah, but in your case, it was because you got that. Woo! Here we go.

SPEAKER_04: 26:59

Well, and then the other thing I thought what it made me think about is you know, that and just what along going along what you're saying is that when you when you hit that wall, there's a wall that every entrepreneur hits. And you may hit 10. You may hit a hundred walls, you may hit one every morning when you get up and you're like, you're gonna hit that. But when you hit that wall, there's a moment of you go, okay, I could quit and I could just go get a job. Yeah, right. I you just okay, I know that I could get hired and I could go teach and I can go do whatever. You know, at that point I had my master's degree. Okay. So it's like I could go back to what I was doing before. But I remember there's a moment I was and and I and I and it was and I thought about my dad because there was that moment where I wanted to quit. There's been several, and I go, it's all my money. Yeah, I can't quit. Like I this is I've put everything in. Yeah. If it were other people's money and and I had a cushion, sure, I don't think I would have pushed as hard. I don't think I would have had the the desire to get to making money as quickly as we did. Sure. Right? The motivation, because it's all us. I'm like, I can't let this fail. There's no way this could fail. You know, I can't let it fail. And so all of that really created the daily motivation to keep banging the phone, to keep calling, to keep doing the parties, to keep moving forward. This is gonna work, it's gonna be successful. And by issue three, we're profitable. Wow, you know. So by issue three, now we're making money. And by that point, I could hire my wife and get her on.

SPEAKER_03: 28:35

Domas, that's impressive. Yeah, that's a beautiful business model. Yeah, yeah. And then I would imagine that they had already created this concept of oh, this is our margins, this is what we do. You've got to get it to X amount of people, but you got to do it again next month and next month and you got to keep it going. Right.

SPEAKER_04: 28:49

Yeah, and and the other piece to that is you got to get people to commit long term to your magazine. Yeah, like the the the reason why most magazines don't succeed is they sell one issue and that's it. That's right. Just give it one issue. No, no. You can't you can't build a business or reputation off of just one ad one time. You got to commit to a longer term. And so in the beginning, that's what I sold. I sold all one uh year-long agreements. Absolutely. Now I sell two-year agreements. Now I have a guy on three-year agreements. Beautiful. So that's the that was the model, and that's what really got us to that next level. But it was, I can't fail. This is all my money. Oh, and by the way, I have like a one-year-old, or at the time he was two. Oh, wow. He's like a two, two and a half year old. Oh, yeah. And so you can't you can't fail with a two-year-old at home. And every day you get you run it home and daddy, daddy, daddy, you know, in between. It's like motivation. And now that my wife was on board, she was able to up level me because I'm a I'm a solo cup guy. Like I'm a red solo cup guy. I might, I'm not fancy. My wife is crystal glass, you know, Tiffany boxes, like she's got the vision. BMW. Yeah, she's got the vision. Exactly. She's got the vision. Whereas I, for me, I just was like, okay, let's. Just let's be effective, but let's make it happen and execute. She sees the finer details, which is what I needed to now really expand. Yeah. And so, yeah, so that's how we got it off the ground. Started Austin in um that was in 2011 when we started San Antonio. And then in 13, I start Austin Luxury Home Magazine. And let me tell you, different market.

SPEAKER_03: 30:20

Oh, different market.

SPEAKER_04: 30:21

It's it's like traveling during that time, this would have been 2013. It was like going in a spacesuit, going to another universe, wow, trying to sell something. Oh, I can imagine. That's how difficult Austin was. Wow. It was so much harder than San Diego.

SPEAKER_03: 30:37

You've got your in crowds of that luxury 40 agents or so that are tight-knit. Um, who is this other agent that comes in? I can imagine not only is it the same in Austin, it's it's almost harder. It's harder. It's almost double.

SPEAKER_05: 30:55

It's harder.

SPEAKER_04: 30:55

Yeah, and and plus at that time there were a lot of magazines, there were a lot of options. You know, so we were competing with other publications. Um, and then some other and then new publications popped up right after we started because people saw that there was an opportunity there. Because Austin, the the just to give give people an understanding. Um, year to date, Austin has sold$2,500 million homes. Okay. Okay. Any guess on San Antonio? Oh gosh, I would have to see. Year to date. What if San What of San Antonio? I'm gonna put Mark on the spot here.

SPEAKER_03: 31:25

I'm gonna say you get to vote too. I'm gonna say$150.

SPEAKER_04: 31:30

Okay,$150 million homes this so far this year.

SPEAKER_01: 31:33

I'm going 92.

SPEAKER_04: 31:36

92? Okay, this year. We've sold$656 million homes. Way better. Way better, right?

SPEAKER_03: 31:44

Yeah. Now, mind you, is this also because we've had uh massive growth in our property equities? Uh yeah, for sure. You know?

SPEAKER_04: 31:52

Yeah, yeah. But we've been selling over, I mean, we've been selling over 500 for the since COVID, but since before COVID. I mean, we've been we've been increasing, it's been consistent. You know, it every year it's gone up. This year it's gonna eclipse even the COVID year, which is rare for us. Whereas Austin right now is flat. Austin's luxury is flat. It's not growing. Yeah. Where our luxury is up around 13 to 16 percent this year, year over year.

SPEAKER_03: 32:16

Now, let me ask you you being so entrenched in this, and I know you know your stuff, what do you think the reason for that is? I've got my uh beliefs or or uh why there's so many million dollar homes that are selling?

SPEAKER_04: 32:28

Correct. So two things. Number one, we're where more people are coming here that that a million dollar house is like not a big deal.

SPEAKER_03: 32:34

That's that's where I was going with it.

SPEAKER_04: 32:35

Yep. Million dollar house is like million dollar, yeah, and I get the land too? Correct. Right? Like you're gonna give me 14 acres. Yes. So people freak out when they see our value in comparison with the land. Absolutely. Right. So that's one. Number two, appreciation. Um, every realtor, I just if you're listening to this in the car, right? You you have this on Apple, right? You're listening to this a car. You've walked into a KB house that's a million dollars, and you're like, how is this a million-dollar house?

unknown: 33:01

Right.

SPEAKER_04: 33:02

Every agent has experienced that. That's right. You know, and you're like, well, it's location and it's the size of the home, and it's it's it's a million dollar house. So our appreciation is another factor to that. Plus, what I also think is I think San Antonio has been very conservative. This will probably be the third little San Antonio's been very conservative. We have a lot of business owners that do really well here. That's right.

SPEAKER_03: 33:23

On the down low. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04: 33:24

And they're and they don't know. That's right. And they're all been very, you know, they've been subtle, but they get that, they they start getting to that point where they're like, okay, now I want to buy the big boy house. Yeah. But they're not too flashy. They don't, they don't want to go for the$8 million one that Bink Con has in Dominion right now. They're they're thinking maybe two or three, right? And so that two or three market, even though we've only had 10, 11 houses um uh over, I think it's uh what was it? Goodness. I have the statistics. Um over what? Uh once you get to three million, I think we've had nine houses sell over three million to three point nine nine. And then I think it's a 51 from 2 million to 2.999. I think it's 50 houses. Wow. In that little brand, it's 50. Wow. But once you get above that, we've only had 20 houses that have sold above three million. Wow. Okay. So that's where you start to see the even bigger difference between Austin and San Antonio because those numbers jump dramatically. Okay. But all that to say is I think what's happened is that that that that uh home a business owner is like, I'm ready to make the jump. And they're going for a bigger house. Oh, for sure. Now, mind you, all my statistics statistics are MLS. Okay. I don't have builder. Yep, I don't have off the books. Off the books, uh, the non-MLS stuff that sells. And they're still live.

SPEAKER_05: 34:45

Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04: 34:46

But that's in every market. All sends the same way. So so that you you've got so now our market can can handle. I mean, we're we had there were 900 million dollar houses on the market in San Antonio. Wow. Think about that. That's quite a bit. That's a lot. Yeah. When I started, we were in the 200s.

SPEAKER_03: 35:04

Oh, I can imagine that.

SPEAKER_04: 35:05

So 15 years later, we're at you know, 900 million dollar houses.

SPEAKER_03: 35:10

Appreciation, and and you've got the concept of and I hate to say this because I don't, I'm not against it. Yeah, the wealthy get wealthier in times like this. Sure. Um, opportunity comes up. We tend to capitalize or are able to capitalize on that. Yeah. And now what do we do with the money?

SPEAKER_04: 35:29

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 35:30

You know?

SPEAKER_04: 35:30

Yeah. And real estate is one of those. And I'll tell you, um, I know that you know, Florida's talking about, you know, getting rid of uh property taxes for your primary house. Oh, yeah. Can you can you imagine?

SPEAKER_03: 35:41

Oh, I can imagine. I drink about it every night.

SPEAKER_04: 35:44

If that happens, I mean, now the million-dollar house doesn't seem so crazy, right? Now the two the four million dollar house doesn't seem so crazy, right?

SPEAKER_03: 35:52

Absolutely.

SPEAKER_04: 35:53

Um, but it's only on your primary residence, is what I'm hearing that they're talking about. Hey, right?

SPEAKER_03: 35:56

I'll take 30 grand a year off any year.

SPEAKER_04: 35:59

Yeah. It'd be incredible. Absolutely. It'd be incredible. So, so yeah, so that that's part of it. But but I think to me, the one thing that really worked, and the reason why we were able to have the success in San Antonio is the events was one. And number two, just really taking care of the clients. Yeah. Like doing what we say we do. Sure. We we direct mail 17,000 magazines. Wow. I mail 17,000 plus magazines in San Antonio every single issue. Wow. It costs me a lot of money. My book is over a pound, it weighs over a pound. Wow. So it's it's very expensive to mail a magazine, okay? Then we print 24,000 copies in San Antonio, okay, right? So the other 7,000 are hand distributed all over the city. We're at H E B's and you know title companies. In terms, in terms of distribution, we're putting it where people can see it. And same thing in Austin. I print 20,000 in Austin, 15,000 are direct mail to the most affluent houses. Sure. And we base that, it's a forced mail. You don't have to subscribe. Nope. We base that off of your property values and we send it to you.

SPEAKER_03: 37:02

Oh, I get it every month.

SPEAKER_04: 37:03

Yep. Yep.

SPEAKER_03: 37:04

Of course you do. That's beautiful. Yeah, of course you do. That's awesome. So, yeah, of course you do. So now, at what point within your journey you had the magazine rolling, it still requires, I'm sure, plenty of your time. Uh, you've got your wife that's helping you out in this instance. When did you make the transition to the motivational speaking, the engagements that you're doing? And I'm seeing them all over the place. Uh one day, I when I grow up, I want to be like you. Yeah. You know, and people will come to me and they'll say, Well, you've got the podcast, you've crushed it in mortgage, you've got these companies. Why aren't you a motivational speaker? Yeah. Well, I'm not there yet, in my opinion. I have not done enough thus far that I'm on autopilot. Yeah. I'm still working to make the next jump in where we want to be in life, to be honest. Right. Um, what what was your indicator?

SPEAKER_04: 38:02

Well, I was a T because I was a teacher, I think there's a natural progression to teach realtors, right? It's or to teach whoever's in front of you.

SPEAKER_03: 38:10

No, you're 100% correct. That is the one thing that a lender and lenders out there listening, you want to gain more realtor relationships, teach them something, give them value, something they can use to make more money, to help their family, et cetera.

SPEAKER_04: 38:23

Yeah. Yeah. And so, so that was one facet of it. And then I I remember at one point uh when I got into the space, um, the CE credits were like a big deal. People were all like, well, can you can you do CE credits? Because I was teaching classes when I started Luxury magazine. I started teaching realtors, and I was like, Well, I'll get the CE. So I did the CE thing and it was a pain in the butt, but I did it and it worked. And I was like, okay, that's that's cool, but I don't want that to be my main focus of teaching, right? To do the CE credits. But uh, but but here's the thing, right? I got in 2014. I remember uh like vividly, I ran into a client and he was on, he's like, Yeah, you know, I'm on my way to John Maxwell. I'm gonna be a my John Maxwell coach. Oh and at that time, I was like, What do you mean you're a John Maxwell coach? Like, I was a John Maxwell, like, I read all his books. Yeah, same here. All of them. And I mean, what do you mean you're gonna be a John Maxwell coach? What does that even mean? Right. I never heard of this concept. And he goes, Well, I'm gonna go and you you get certified and you become a coach and they teach you how to coach, they teach you how to speak, and they teach you how you know, do these things. And I said, Well, I know how to speak, I've been doing that. I said, but but I don't know about coaching and I don't know about this masterminds, and and and and then it was the training. Okay. And so I'll I told I I I literally, my wife and I were standing there with the gentleman, and I go home and I go, What do you think? And she's like, You're gonna go. Now, this is 2014. We'd only had the magazine at that point three years, right? So we're three years in, and and you know, you're you're trying to like make everything work and you're trying to make your you know, it's not like we're making a killing. No, no, no, no. But we're making enough to where it's like, okay, this is a this is a sizable investment. Sure. And I remember they called me, so that was a Thursday. They called me on a Friday. The event was the next Monday. Oh, wow. Zero time to think, get ready. Right. Wife says we're going. Wife says, You're gonna go. That's right. And I'm like, I so I'm talking with this person and I'm like, okay, what's the investment? And they say it, and I'm just like, I don't even like, I I and and I call so I said, she goes, well, if you if you do it now, it's gonna be this, right? They do the whole like if you if you do now, it's gonna be this. Oh, and you get this, you know. And so I was like, I said, you I said, I have to call my wife. This is this is a size ball. I mean, it was like almost 10 grand, right? And I call her and I said, I said, I'm freaking out right now. And I said, uh, I just need you to tell me if this is crazy or not. And I said, it's very expensive. And she goes, it doesn't matter. You're gonna do it. And I and I was like, you don't even know the price yet. Like, what are you talking about? Christina. I said, it's 10. She goes, but cut me out. She goes, it doesn't matter. She goes, you need to do this. Yeah, you're going. So call them back and hurry up so you don't lose your time. You know what I mean? So I call back the next that weekend, I'm on a flight, I'm there, I'm in front of John Maxwell. And here's the thing I don't, I don't necessarily think of myself as a motivational speaker because I think this will help you if you would allow me to speak into you a little bit. Please. I don't think of myself as a motivational speaker. I think of myself as a teacher that's got some content and some things that I've learned in this life, right? Things that I've like things in my, what I call my toolbox. Okay. And I have all of this stuff in my journal, but all these things that have been that that have I've collected over time, and nuggets, wisdom, books. I see all your books here, things, uh uh what I call um um battle scars that you've had. Sure. Right, all of those lessons have led you up to this very moment.

SPEAKER_03: 41:48

That's right.

SPEAKER_04: 41:49

And you can share that in a way that is motivating, but doesn't mean you're necessarily a motivational speaker.

SPEAKER_03: 41:55

I see.

SPEAKER_04: 41:56

You you follow me?

SPEAKER_03: 41:57

Absolutely. It's the presentation, how you're packaging it up. Absolutely. Yeah. I call them landmines because the idea is I've gone through many landmines. My goal is to keep you from stepping on the same ones I have.

SPEAKER_04: 42:09

Love it.

SPEAKER_03: 42:09

But there are many cases you have to step on that landmine because it needs to hurt.

SPEAKER_04: 42:14

It needs to hurt. I love it. And so just that, just that story uh uh uh of you could create a class called uh called, you know, I've stepped on some landmines and so should you. And that's your class. I love it. Right. I love it. I've stepped on some landmines and so should you, right? And applaud, remember that. And literally the whole the whole class is about I'm gonna tell you my top five landmines and what I learned from each one of them. That's your class. It's motivational. Oh, for sure. Right? But it's also educational, which is really, I want to educate you because what I don't, what I don't want is I don't want people to come see me speak and walk away, walk away feeling motivated, but then the next day they don't know why and they don't do anything. I want them to come in and sit with me and be educated and then walk out and go, well, Tomas says, I gotta do that, I gotta do that, and then go do it. You know, that's the difference I think between motivational speaking and teaching. It's a huge difference.

SPEAKER_03: 43:11

Yeah, you nailed it.

SPEAKER_04: 43:12

And so you could do that tomorrow. You could do that today because you've already got the stories, you've already got the knowledge base. And the cool part is you've run businesses, you've run people, and so now you've got the systems because really what realtors need, they need systems. Correct. They they don't realize most of the time that they are running their own business. They're business owners. That's right. They're entrepreneurs, yeah, and a lot of them don't know it.

SPEAKER_03: 43:36

Yeah, you are correct. You are correct. Um, JC, where are we at on time? I love this. Say it again. Okay, yeah, about 15 more minutes. Um, let's talk about some current events stuff. And and what I want to do is start with the idea of where you think the magazine is gonna go as the future continues to do what it does. Yep. Without saying the obvious. Yeah. Uh, what do you think? Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 44:02

As far as those, so you know, you look at the magazine. I I think that people, no matter what, still want to touch and feel and open something. Yes. Like when you get your magazine, you look through it. Absolutely, right? So I don't know if that's necessarily gonna go away. And I and then one of the main reasons is is restoration hardware. Okay. Okay, you know that story. Absolutely. They send out uh catalog this thick. We get it, right? I don't know why they keep sending it to us. We we haven't bought anything in a while. A year. Okay, like a year, but they keep sending us this thing. This thing has to weigh about two and a half pounds, and it's this thick catalog of all their stuff. Why are they still printing that? Because paper's cheap. It's cheap. Yeah, they can get it in front of a lot of people, absolutely, right?

SPEAKER_03: 44:47

And it's that that the feeling that someone gets when they're going through it. Yes, that feeling of renewal, that feeling of uh opportunity, potential. Yeah, what could we do? Goal setting. I'd like to do this, and and this almost the same idea of the magazine that you have, it's sexy. Yep, it sells, it sells, you know. People want whether you are living in a luxury home currently or aspiring to live in a luxury home, or even hating on people that live in luxury homes.

SPEAKER_04: 45:16

You still gotta lose. You're still gonna look. You still gotta look. That's right. Yeah, yeah. So I look at it like from a per perspective of I don't see that changing. Now, um, is there it does something evolve with mail that we don't know of? I don't know. I don't know if mail really changes. I don't think it can. I don't think it can. I don't think it can. That's right. So like mail can't change, and if mail can't change, then then this avenue is gonna be, it's gonna be a long time for this absolute changes, right? So then you go, okay, so that that kind of plays us out maybe five, 10 years, right? So that that's the aspect of it because this is a male determinant type business. Now, the evolution of this, a lot of magazines, what they started doing is they realized the expense of mail. And so a lot of magazines just said, we're not gonna mail anymore, right? But that's the whole bread and butter of what I do. Because if you truly want to get aspirational, the best place to do it is on their coffee table.

SPEAKER_03: 46:05

Yes.

SPEAKER_04: 46:05

I need to be on their coffee table. I need to be in their mailbox every issue six times a year. That's right. I need them pulling it out and going, Do you see this? Yeah, this is crazy. Look at this$8 million house that's on the cover. I got a house that's gonna be on the next cover. It is absolutely people are gonna go, where is that house? They're gonna freak out. The house is completely surrounded by water. It's on a peninsula.

SPEAKER_03: 46:29

Holy cow.

SPEAKER_04: 46:30

It is the coolest photo of the house. This is gonna be on the cover of San Antonio. How cool. People are gonna be like, where is this house and how much is it?

SPEAKER_03: 46:40

Yes. And then they're gonna say who owns it.

SPEAKER_04: 46:42

And who owns, like, how like wow. At one point, we're looking at the photo, and the photo has a garage that's in the water. So I want you to imagine garage doors, and they're going down. That part of the house goes down until it has a garage for your boat. Wow.

unknown: 47:01

Wow.

SPEAKER_04: 47:02

Now in Austin, that's kind of like that's no big deal. No big deal. Everybody knows about that. Absolutely. Brother Bill Wait, San Antonio, like you got a garage for three boats and jet skis and and like so so. All that to say is I think the aspirational aspect of, I don't think much of that changes. Now, how how do we evolve as a company? Sure. Well, we're we are evolving as a training company. We're gonna become not only just this aspirational publication of where people can go to see luxury, we're gonna start teaching agents aspirationally. How can you start selling? How can we become that? How do you get to this level to sell luxury homes? Now, can everybody be a luxury agent? No. But people can aspire to that and start learning some of these techniques. Most definitely. They can start learning, we call it the distinctive agent lab. Okay. And so in this distinctive agent lab, we're gonna teach people how to leverage, amplify, and build. Right? How do you leverage your business? How do you amplify it? How do you get your message in front of people? How do you build your business? How do you scale? Sure. A lot of realtors don't know how to scale. You're exactly correct. You know, so that so this that's gonna be the evolution of where we're going. We're gonna be doing more events. We're gonna have the luxury real estate summit in February 2026, um, possibly the end of February, March. We're just finalizing the date this week, but that will be at the JW Marriott. We had it last year, we had over 530 agents that came to that event. Wow. Don't miss it. Wow. It's gonna be an amazing event. Um, and it was this year, it's gonna be another amazing one next year. So the evolution of where we're going is teaching, training, and using all the skill sets that I've had uh with everything that I've done and and with all the agents that I worked with. And now let's take it over and help agents so they can aspire aspire to that.

SPEAKER_03: 48:46

Leverage even bigger, add more value. Add more value. I love that. Yep, I love that. Wow. And and and there's many out there that that think um, yeah, the magazines, that paper stuff, it's it's just I don't even use it. But then when we're bringing it back to the idea and concept of luxury homes, that goes out the window. Yep, it truly does. Yep.

SPEAKER_04: 49:10

Um, yeah, it's impressive. Well, it's a niche, and and this is what people need to understand is that uh there are riches and niches. We all know that, right? But but but when you have a niche of luxury real estate, everybody wants to look at those houses. Yeah. I don't care who they are. You're correct. They not only do they want to look at them, they're like, can we go walk in them?

SPEAKER_03: 49:29

Yeah. What do I need next?

SPEAKER_04: 49:30

And how do we how do we get that? Well, this year we did the luxury uh Dominion Luxury tour. We had six houses there with with with um some of the builders, Burdick, Lifestyle by Stadler, uh Jim Bowles. Uh um we also had um uh who else was it? We had two houses with uh Roberto L. Kinningstein. I mean, people were walking through and seeing these houses. You don't get a chance to see those houses. You are correct.

SPEAKER_03: 49:54

It's very rare. As a matter of fact, uh I used to throw an event, we did it for a full year, and it was uh tacos and mimosas. Okay, we have luxury homes that we would gain access to and we'd get them on a big tour bus and take the realtors around. They were packed every single time. Yep, and it's because for that reason, yeah. Normal agent, your your typical agent, does not get the opportunity to even set foot in that because they don't have a client that you go to see that home. Right. And most homes like that, by appointment only, most of the time or funds. You gotta have the funds. Show me the funds or the listing agent's gonna show up. Yeah, they that's what they do, yeah. Um, which that's impressive, but what it takes to sell those types of homes. Yeah, you know, yeah, you get one opportunity to sell eight million dollars, four million dollars. That that's not that doesn't happen every day.

SPEAKER_04: 50:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03: 50:44

Um, for your layman.

SPEAKER_04: 50:46

For sure.

SPEAKER_03: 50:47

Yeah, no, that's impressive. For sure.

SPEAKER_04: 50:48

So and and part of that evolution too is is is getting back to that whole evolution of luxury home magazine. Is that the the magazine is I think is always going to be what it is. It's it's it is a tool for agents to and businesses. Like think about right now, if you wanted to get in front of seven thousand 17,000 of the wealthiest people in San Antonio, what would it take to get in front of the 17,000 of the wealthiest people? Because remember, on Facebook, you can't do that. Oh no. Oh no.

SPEAKER_03: 51:15

They're probably not there.

SPEAKER_04: 51:16

Well, and they're not there, right? But you you can't you can't target based on wealth or any of that. So, how can you do it in San Antonio? It's a luxury home magazine. It's the only way that you can get in front of that that type of client. That's right. And so the evolution of that also, it's now um um training. We're gonna do four workshops next year that we're gonna be helping not only businesses, but uh people understand brand. You know, today I'm I'm I'm I'm a big uh Grant Cardone, and on the class today, I'm on Cardone University. My whole team is on Cardone University. We learn every single day, and we're learning the uh the process of sales every single day. And today was branding is more important than marketing. Oh, I have to agree with that. Branding become a household name.

SPEAKER_03: 52:01

They need you they need to know who you are. Absolutely. If they don't know you, they can't flow you. Well, and it's the same concept of what old timers used to say. If you build it, they will come. Yeah, not in today's world. Nope. They have to know about it.

SPEAKER_04: 52:13

Yeah, yeah. And and and so all that to say is that's kind of the evolution uh uh of where we're going in training company, coaching, uh, coaching company, uh uh giving people the ability to access that world to understand how to be a part of that world. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03: 52:28

Yeah, man, that's awesome. Well, Tomas, I mean, this has been a great conversation. I've learned a whole lot about you. Uh is there anything that you would like to tell our listeners about you, the future, and what you're doing, which you've already told us quite a bit. Yeah, let me ask you, what is one thing that besides the family, because we know that that's the ultimate motivator, um and and I believe in doing things through Jesus Christ Himself. Yeah, uh, he uses me. He I know he uses you. 100%. Besides those two factors, what what is something that motivates you nonstop? Because and I and I'll preface with I don't care how successful someone is or or how much they say they are motivated like myself, there's still something that that continues to motivate me uh to push forward to the next venture, the next uh failure, so to speak.

SPEAKER_04: 53:23

Yeah. Well, I mean, I think I think one thing that motivates me is you you gotta marry well. Who you marry matters. Yeah. And I have a whole class on this on my YouTube. Who you marry matters. Um, because if you if you marry the right person, they're going to be a motivating factor uh so that you grow. They're gonna be a motivating factor, like, hey, you're gonna go take that John Maxwell class and you're gonna pay the 10 grand. And well, where's it? It doesn't matter. We're gonna figure it out we'll find the money. Don't worry about it. So you need to, you you need a so my wife is a massive motivation, uh, motivating factor. We leave on Saturday and we're gonna be on the Ritz-Carlton uh cruise line. Very cool. And and this is uh, we're cruisers. We love to cruise. I mean, we've been on a lot of cruises, but this is not cruising, this is yachting. This is a whole different level. And we're gonna be on the boat with Grant Cardone, okay. And this is a mastermind cruise. Um, last year I was on it, there were three billionaires that were on the cruise. Okay. And so the motivating factor for me is that you've got to get around people that are that are doing things way bigger than you. So when you start getting around people that are doing things at a bigger level, listen, your dreams get way bigger. Yes, that is very true. Right? Your dreams get way bigger. And and I mean, my dream at one point was like, this is it's funny that I'm I've I don't think I've ever shared this. My dream was I wanted to live by a golf course. Okay. Okay. I wanted, I just wanted to live by a golf course. And and I didn't even make the dream to live on the golf course. Okay, my dream was so weak. I just want to be close by. I just want to live by a golf course. You know what I mean? It's like that's so general and vague and weak. You know, it's like, Tomiles, come on, dream bigger than that. But that was my dream. I wanted to live by a golf course, right? That was kind of the dream and the motivating thing. And then I remember my son gets in the golf, and then we were like, and then we would start talking about, well, maybe we need to join a golf club, right? Maybe we need to join and be a part of like a golf club. And and that to me was so foreign. I didn't grow up playing golf. I didn't start playing golf really and truly till I was probably 30 or 40, right? I'm 50. I just turned 50 uh uh uh in in September. And and here's the thing. I I I just I literally was just like, you know, I want to be by a golf course. Well, I didn't do it. And then we started talking about this membership, and then we we pull the trigger during COVID and we're like, okay, we became members of a golf club. And I can't tell you how weird that felt for like two years. It was I didn't even tell anybody I was a member at a golf club. I wanted because it was so big, it was so outside of my world, you know? And so became a member at TPC, and and I'm golfing there all the time, and I'm really not telling you, I'm not talking to me about it, right? And then as we're there, I told my wife, I was like, we need to, we probably should move. And then we end up moving, and I we sold our house in Stone Oak and we moved across uh right by TPC. Okay, and I can see where my house is from the golf course now. That's awesome, right? And so the the thing is, is like, I think the one motivating factor I tell people is like sometimes you your dream, like you have those dreams, and like for me, I wasn't a big goal writer. Okay, and I shared this, I've shared this with people. I wasn't really a big goal, like write goals down. Sure. I that wasn't my thing. Because I'll tell you why, because I knew I had to do the work to go get it. That's right. So I didn't want to write down my goals.

SPEAKER_03: 56:38

You didn't want to set the expectation that you could fail against. Yeah, absolutely.

SPEAKER_04: 56:41

I didn't, and I didn't want to fail. Yeah, right. And I because I was like, well, I mean, so then as you as you start going to more workshops, as you start, you know, you see, I've been to Business Mastery with Tony Robbins, I've been to John Maxwell four times, I've been to all these workshops with Grant Cardone, I've been on this cruise, and you start getting around people and you start realizing, you know, Grant Cardone's jet that he owns, oh, and oh, the helicopter he owns, all of those were dreams that he wrote down when he was broke and didn't have anything. When he had nothing. And he would write down these visions and he would say, Okay, I'm gonna have the the the G five or the G whatever, you know, the global. I'm gonna have, and he kept talking about it and he played this game. And so this is the game. If you had a, you know, when you're when you're out down on your look, this is what Elena Cardone would make Grant play. You have a billion dollars. What are you gonna do with the money?

SPEAKER_05: 57:30

Hmm.

SPEAKER_04: 57:31

And that's when they were like, when they were down on like things were hard when the car business went to everything, and they because they did all their business based off coaching the car business. That's how Grant Cardone got started. She's like, Okay, Grant, I want you to spend a billion dollars. What are you gonna buy with a billion dollars? And this was an exercise that they would play. And so one of the things that motivates my wife and I is not stuff, it's not the stuff, it is the exercise of going. I need to think bigger than just I want to be by the golf course. Yeah. I need anything bigger than that, right? Absolutely. To the where now I'm a member at a golf course. Oh, and by the way, I live by one. Like, but I went the long way to get there because I just didn't want to write it down. So what if I had written it down sooner? Sooner. Wow. Who knows? Who knows, right? Like, I mean, it could be way different, right? It could that that vision could be way, I could be further along in the journey.

SPEAKER_03: 58:24

That's an incredible practice of of going and it's going through the motions right now than putting yourself in a position to go through the game time situations to get there. You know, and it that's an that's an incredible practice. Um, I I would probably start incorporating that personally. Yeah. Um because for me, similar to you, I did not dream big enough until I started meeting people that became a part of my circle that were doing way, much older than I, but at the same time, if he can do it, I can do it. Yeah, type concept. And if and if he can talk about it, I can listen. 100%. Okay. So I became that sponge. And the idea was let's get in different rooms. Yeah, let's get in different circles, and that's how I'm going to shape who I'm gonna be moving forward. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04: 59:16

And now we're here. And I and the other piece to this, to that motivation, right? So the pe the piece is who you marry matters. You need to you need to make sure that you've got somebody that's motivating you, right? That's pushing you. And and and then the other piece to that is is get in a Bible study. Oh, most I read, man.

SPEAKER_03: 59:32

I I'm in a weekly one with a bunch of gentlemen. Are you doing the every man a warrior? No, no, no. This is a Bible study we do every week. Every matter of fact, we had it this morning. Yeah. Um couple of guys from high school, the nice uh Charlie Kirk situation happened. We got together and said, Hey man, um, the time to stop being quiet about it. Let's let's do our weekly thing. Yeah. And let's invite other men that are great. We're not doing it for show. We don't publicize it or anything like that. But definitely I recommend that as well.

SPEAKER_04: 59:59

Well, yeah. I I can tell you, I got Gilly, shout out to Gilly Mendoza. He invited me to Every Man a Warrior. And um, you know, he I thought it was like a, you know, we're gonna get together for like a week. No, no, no. It's like a 30-week process. And it is, I'm telling you, I'm I'm I'm serious when I say this. Like, when you get in a group of guys and you're studying the word like that, it's motivating. Absolutely. Because no matter where everybody's at, everybody's having some wins. Some people may be in some losses, but everybody's having some wins and you get to share in that and you get to be together and you get to read. So I just find a Bible study, and I'm gonna be doing one. When I finish mine, I'm gonna be launching my Everyman a Warrior ML. Buckle up. Because let me tell you this, it's been incredible. That's awesome.

SPEAKER_03: 1:00:44

Yeah, that's awesome. Well, Tomas, this has been a great discussion, probably one of the top uh that I've had recently. Uh, no offense to those before, but we were talking about real estate and stuff like that. This is uh a little different. Um, for those of you listening out there, um, if you do want to get in touch with Tomas, let's throw this up on the screen real quick, JC. This is the website that he has that you can find his bookings, videos, podcasts. Um, his podcast is top-notch, has different conversations with individuals, um, by all means, all walks of life. Um, let me see here. Here's the luxury magazine where you see all of the beautiful things and sexiness uh that goes on in San Antonio. Um, and finally, guys, thanks for joining and subscribing. We're now at 30,600 subscribers and rising. Uh, don't know how. Yes, I do. We're consistent. We bring on guests like yourself, and we're continuing to do that. Um, so Tomas, I want to thank you again for giving me all of this great stuff and allowing me to kind of pry into your life and your story today, man. Thank you. I really did. Yeah. Um, those of you out there, we appreciate you. My commitment to you is to continue to bring you guests just like this so that we can be transparent. Um and uh give you guys some nuggets out there. Hopefully, you can take some of this stuff to the bank and cash it until the next one. How much better? Check you later.

SPEAKER_00: 1:02:12

Are you getting better every single day? That's the question, right? And it's just taking small steps, and you know trying to get it all done in one day, in one week.

SPEAKER_03: 1:02:27

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SPEAKER_02: 1:02:34

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